Friday, October 08, 2010

Petersfield Festivities to have a new 'edge'

Tossing the grissini has proved popular at the annual Eton garden party

A 22-year-old Petersfield man is looking to involve the town’s residents more after over the running of the town’s Festivities.

Pen Ury, a lecher at a women’s gym and part-time editor of What Scone? Monthly, has lived in Petersfield all his life and aims to carry on a family tradition.

Pen explained: “My family has a long association with big projects like the Festivities and an outstanding track record.

“My great-great grandfather was the navigator on the Titanic, my great-great uncle was one of the drivers involved in the Wall Street Crash and the Nuremburg Rally, and my grandfather invented the papier-mâché internet.

“All of which could have turned a profit had things turned out differently. So I have confidence in my entrepreneurial genes.”

To attract more participation Ury is looking to incorporate events that will appeal to Petersfield’s residents.

He said: “The Highland Games, in the Highlands of Scotland, and the Eisteddfod, in the Eisteds of Wales, both attract a lot of local people because it taps into the history and the culture of the region – and that’s what I’ll be looking to do in Petersfield.”

Events under consideration for the new-look Festivities include tossing the grissini, throwing the Jimmy Choo wellington boot and artisan-cheese rolling.

For the youngsters there will be pin the tail on the Lipizzaner; hungry free-range hippos; private Operation – where somebody does it for you; Manhunt, where a butler secrets himself in one of the many domestic quarters around the town; Musical Statues, accompanied by the Petersfield Chamber Orchestra playing the whole of Wagner’s Ring cycle; and a new version of Postman’s knock, where the person who collects the most discarded red elastic bands gets to jump to the front of the queue at the town’s Post Office.

Local schools have been quick to throw their support behind the event with one young girl from fee-paying Dunnannying already planning several fundraising events.

Tamsin Hedge-Fund, mother of nine-year-old Jocasta, said: “Jocasta and some of her friends are keen to help raise some funds to support Pen’s ideas. Four of them have offered to fly economy on their winter ski trips, with the money saved being handed over, and Jocasta is planning to sit in a bath of edamame beans for 24 hours.”

■ With apologies to Ben Errey and with our best wishes in his efforts to make the Petersfield Festivities a success.